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When daisies pied and violets blue

Introduction

Although spectacular musical productions of Shakespeare declined in popularity after about 1710, when Italian opera began to dominate the London theatrical scene, composers continued to set his lyrics for concert or domestic use. Richard Leveridge’s setting of famous words from Love’s Labour’s Lost is a case in point: it combines into a single strophic song the matching lyrics ‘When daisies pied and violets blue’ and ‘When icicles hang by the wall’, sung in the play by Spring and Winter respectively.

Recordings

'The Parley of Instruments, Rachel Brown, director Peter Holman and the Hyperion recording team all deserve applause' (Gramophone)'With the programme arranged by play rather than chronology, creating an alluring stylistic variety within its 100-or-so-year span, and excellent soun ...» More

Details

When daisies pied and violets blue And lady-smocks, all silver-white And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight, The cuckoo then on every tree Mocks married men, for thus sings he: ‘Cuckoo; Cuckoo, cuckoo’ – O word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear!

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks; When [And] turtles tread, and rooks and daws, And maidens bleach their summer smocks; The cuckoo then on every tree Mocks married men, for thus sings he: ‘Cuckoo; Cuckoo, cuckoo’ – O word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear!

When icicles hang by [on] the wall, And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, And Tom bears logs into the hall, And milk comes frozen home in pail; When blood is nipped, and ways be foul, Then nightly sings the staring owl: Tu-whit, to whoo! – a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

When all aloud the wind doth blow, And coughing drowns the parson’s saw, And birds sit brooding in the snow, And Marian’s nose looks red and raw; When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, Then nightly sings the staring owl: Tu-whit, to whoo! – a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.